Opportunities to learn are everywhere — BASC

Take home message

LEARNING CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE IF WE ARE OPEN.

For Coaches

Learning opportunities can come from any level. We like to think it has to be an equal or higher level, but an open mind can see opportunities anywhere.

For Athletes

Your opportunity for learning is easier than you think. Get out of your world and expand your circle.

For many years now, I have had the pleasure of providing experience to local ASCA member S&C coaches and students from Perth universities. These are great opportunities to share some knowledge and tips to developing coaches, providing an experience that is not found in books and classes. But it is certainly not all ‘one-way’. So often, the inexperienced coaches ask simple questions that have me searching for an equally simple answer, challenging me with the well known, “if you can’t explain it simply, you do not understand it well enough” saying attributed to Albert Einstein. It’s refreshing to have an impartial, yet to be complicated perspective, probing my coaching methods.

Recently, I was fortunate to have a guest in the form of an elite athlete from another sport. There were several really interesting aspects of this visit. For me, this was quite a treat as I was able to learn about her training system and experience over her long career in a sport I knew a bit about, but have not worked in extensively. I was able to learn more about our S&C program by the nature of her questions and what she found interesting. What was also really neat about this experience was her interaction with the playing group. Several times during the session when she asked a question about why an athlete may have been doing a particular exercise/routine, rather than me answer, I directed her to our player to answer and it facilitated some excellent insight. Both our guest and I learnt from my athlete’s perspective which was really interesting. My athlete either had a good understanding or not - I could tell if they were using my words or theirs. I got to see how they interpreted the training. I thought it was a pretty cool way for me to learn - what an external elite athlete saw interesting in our program and our athletes understanding of their program.

Lightbulb moments. Photo by Raul Varzar on Unsplash

Another interesting aspect was the manner in which this meeting was arranged. It turns out that a member of her off-field team coaching staff knows me, so it was an easy introduction. Two degrees of separation; not seven. Yes, Perth is small, but sport is a small world and I’d suggest needing seven would be a stretch to connect anyone. I’m sure it is like that in many settings, business, science, etc, that making links within a network is a matter of trying to make them. I have written before how important it is for athletes to have networks as much as it is for coaches, and that it is easier than many think.

Finally, it reminded me of the value of continual learning, but importantly, that learning can come from any source if I am open. I can dismiss the question from an inexperienced coach or student as ignorant, or I can value their uncomplicated perspective - everything is new to them and that makes me clearly consider my understanding of the fundamentals. The elite athlete from a completely different sport asks a style of challenging questions based on their experiences that forces a alternate contemplation.

There are always the learning moments from my athletes and coaches if I take the time to reflect on the conversations and sessions. I have enjoyed the recent ‘upheaval’ to training which has permitted alterations to usual routines. These opportunities have required creative solutions for engagement and trialing of new systems or tweaks to exercise delivery which I may not have been brave enough to try. I appreciate that it has been hard to get out and see other institutions at the moment, or that we can move from session to session hastily. But I’m a believer that learning is critical to continued development and learning can be anywhere if we choose to pay attention.

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Thanks again. BA.